Dear members,
Time is flying. We are getting closer and closer to the Summer Holidays. Time to relax and then re-start for an exciting new year. Europe will host the IHPBA Congress in Geneva in September 2018 and then the E-AHPBA congress in Amsterdam in June 2019. That is great news as it will facilitate those interested in HPB to visit both meetings. There is no doubt that the IHPBA meeting in Geneva will be extremely interesting and successful, both in terms of its location and with respect to the preliminary programme. There will also be a UEMS exam in Geneva, which will enable those who are interested to obtain the European HPB Certificate. The fact that both the IHPBA and E-AHPBA congress are taking place in Europe also implies that is even more attractive to become a member of the E-AHPBA. As of last year, the only E-AHPBA membership is the combined IHPBA-EAHPBA membership and this is associated with a considerable reduction in registration fee for both meetings. In the past year, this has led to a considerable increase in E-AHPBA membership. An important aim of the E-AHPBA is to increase the multidisciplinarity in the E-AHPBA, amongst others by creating an environment that is also attractive for Allied Health Care Professionals. This will also be a focus for the Amsterdam meeting. Teaching and training is an important topic in the E-AHPBA and it is in this context that quite a bit of energy has been put into the development of structured educational activities. Professor Rogiers and the Education Committee have spent a lot of time and energy to standardise the structure and governance of educational activities organised on behalf or with support of the E-AHPBA. This has led to a so called pyramid of Education and Training Activities.
The aim of this is to make it clear to all those who are interested in organising a meeting what they can expect from the E-AHPBA. In addition, the more structured approach will hopefully lead to standardisation of quality and make it more clear to those interested in signing up for a course what they can expect. For more details on this topic, please have a look at the E-AHPBA website (https://eahpba.org/education-and-training/educational-activities/). This more structured approach also puts the National Chapters more in the spotlight and this may ensure visibility of National Chapters also in the IHPBA.
I wish you all a very pleasant summer and look forward to seeing you in Geneva.
Kees Dejong
E-AHPBA Secretary General